


To Be Fair, It Was a Really Big Puzzle

by fourthduckling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Because of Quantum, Crossover, Gen, Post Season 5, Wholock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-30
Updated: 2012-03-30
Packaged: 2017-11-02 18:48:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/372177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourthduckling/pseuds/fourthduckling
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the Doctor breaks the news to Rory that all his precious Sherlock Holmes books have simultaneously ceased to exist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Be Fair, It Was a Really Big Puzzle

Sometimes when you take time and space apart and then put it back together, not all the pieces work the way they used to.  
  
Because of quantum or wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff or the way ants line up to carry crumbs in a row, things align themselves a little differently. The Doctor knows this. The Doctor practically invented this (though, to be fair, it was _mostly_ by accident, but can you really call something an accident if you keep doing it over and over?). Something of this magnitude, though-- this was special. This was better than special. It was fantastic.  
  
So there he is looking at a picture of a man who shouldn't exist, accompanied by another man who shouldn't exist. According to the databases, both men should have had completely different names and lived very different lives. But here they are on the front page of the newspaper in the year 2011. Several newspapers, actually, and carrying iconic names with new faces. "Pond, do you remember reading any Sir Arthur Conan Doyle when you were at school?"  
  
Amy looks up from where she's been fiddling with something that looks like a cross between a can opener, two eggbeaters, and a hairdryer (it's for brushing your teeth-- if you come from Neptune in the year 5141, or for getting rid of termites in any other year). "Yeah, Sherlock Holmes. Hound of the Baskervilles and all that. Everybody's read them."  
  
"Not anymore." The Doctor turns on his heel, radiating with glee.  
  
"What do you mean, not anymore?" Rory peeks over the edge of the TARDIS floor, looking seriously annoyed. He's got a fist full of wires that he's been sorting into little piles of different colors. He's got 52 piles at the moment, and the Doctor doesn't have the heart to tell him that there should be 115. "Are they not teaching Sherlock Holmes in school? What a waste. I'm a huge fan. Only thing that kept me reading through secondary school."  
  
"Well, that's just the thing," the Doctor says mysteriously. He turns again, crouches down, wiggles his eyebrows at Rory. He gets a slightly vacant look back, but knows that this is only Rory's thinking face. It used to bother him until he realized that the ex-Roman could see into people's hearts almost as well as the Doctor could see into time. Rory. The Big Picture guy. It was actually kind of sweet. "Conan Doyle never wrote Sherlock Holmes. Not since I patched up the universe. Something always slips through the cracks, only this time it was a _big_ one."  
  
"What?!" Rory scrambles up onto the main platform, nearly vibrating with anger. "Can't you put it back?!" The Doctor wonders, with amusement, how many secondary school-era books have stopped existing in Rory's bedroom.  
  
"No," the Doctor says. Then he grins, and it nearly splits his face. "I can do you one better."  
  
"Oh you've done it now," Amy says with mock fear, waving her hands before winding a bit on the toothbrush/termite weapon. "Taking away Rory's precious books just because you can't figure out how to fit a puzzle back properly..."  
  
"How would you like to meet him?"  
  
"Conan Doyle? Yeah that would be lovely," she says distractedly, squinting at one of the eggbeater-shaped bits.  
  
"No. I mean _Sherlock Holmes_."


End file.
